Good afternoon,

With the Ithaca City School District switching to all virtual instruction, rising Covid-19 cases, library staff numbers already reduced, and many employees out, Tompkins County Public Library has made the difficult decision to stop Express Browsing until January 5, 2021 effective immediately.

TCPL previously informed the library community that we would use the Governor’s directive laid out in the NY Forward Plan, and follow the protocol for the Cluster Action Initiative allowing us to continue Express Browsing in a yellow zone --unless ICSD moved to remote-only instruction in the Orange or Red Zone.

The school district has moved to remote-only instruction prior to reaching the micro-cluster zone measures, and we are taking similar action following the same concern for our staff and patrons.

We have tried our best to meet these challenges, and ask for your patience as we weather the remainder of this pandemic.

Thank you for supporting the library, our staff, and community.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season,

Annette